Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

Been actively reading the information on this site. The good, the bad and the crazy.

I live in good old melbourne where they hold what is argueably the most famous four legged race every year.

My system wont be for a while yet as I am in the process of organising an extension. With an estimated 9 month build, it will be about this time next year when I will action my monster landscaped design MLD for short.

Basically, living where I live, space is at a premium.

My backyard will be 10m by 7.5m of which I have earmarked an area about 2.7m by 4m which I can play with.

I also have a side lane which is 1m by 15m running alongside the house. This lane is also between my house and the neighbor and does not get alot of sun as both our properties, although being single storey are about 5m high. This lane is also sloping, from the front of the house to the ground of the fish tank about 3m to 4m. This slope will be concreted and stepped. I will make sure some of the steps will be long enough to place fish tanks which are 2m x 0.5m x 1.2m. Could possibly squeeze in 4 of those.

The DW just needs some convincing, with the main impediment being it "has to look good"

So the MLD will be;

4 Fish Tanks 2x0.5x1.2 cascading (1000Lt x 4)
onto
3 Growbeds 2x1x0.3 (600Lt x 3)
returning to the
Sump/Fish Tank/Display tank 2m x 3m x 1.2m (6000Lt)

This display "pond" will be the landscaped feature, with water lillies and lotus growing. Debating if I should include a large round bowl inside the tank as a feature to satisfy the wife.

So how its going to work is to pump the water from the large tank to the cascading fish tanks and let them overflow onto each other and then to the growbeds and then back to the display tank. Still debating if I should have a sump tank so the display tank water doesnt fluctuate too much. Basic maths suggests this will be a 10000Lt setup with a puny 1800Lt of growbeds. Which means it will likely be sparsely stocked with I dont know what at the moment.

Hope to get feedback from the folks here so I dont waste too much water, plants and fishes when I enact the MLD.